DOCSLIB.ORG

Monitoring Parliamentarians: Promises, Barriers and Dilemmas of Parliamentary Openness

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Monitoring Parliamentarians: Promises, Barriers and Dilemmas of Parliamentary Openness Monitoring parliamentarians: promises, barriers and dilemmas of parliamentary openness EGPA Study Group on Information and communications technologies in Public Administration Conference 10-12 September 2014, Speyer, Germany Arthur Edwards* Dennis de Kool Charlotte van Ooijen [email protected] *Corresponding author Erasmus University Rotterdam Department of Public Administration P.O. Box 1738 Room T17-34 3000 DR Rotterdam Abstract: This paper focuses on the monitoring of individual parliamentarians and parliamentary groups by independent Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations. Five parliamentary monitoring websites (PMWs) in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are compared regarding their usefulness and democratic value for the monitorial citizen. Our findings indicate that PMWs have democratic value. They have positive effects on accountability and expose weaknesses in the functioning of parliamentarians with regard to integrity and conflicts of interest. However, there are some important barriers regarding usefulness. The existing scholarly knowledge about how voters gather and process information should be better taken into account in the approach to information provision on PMWs. The drive to monitor parliamentarians can have certain perverse effects on the behaviour of parliamentarians. The value of parliamentary monitoring for the quality of parliamentary work deserves further research. DRAFT: please, do not cite without permission of the corresponding author. Comments are welcome! 1 1.Introduction ‘Parliamentary openness’ has become a central concern within the international parliamentary community. The principle involves ‘that information produced by or for the parliament belongs to the citizen’.1 Parliamentary openness refers to a wide range of efforts in providing information on parliamentary processes. It involves the active dissemination of information by parliaments themselves as well as the efforts of civil society actors in accessing, processing and publishing parliamentary data. This paper focuses on parliamentary monitoring, i.e. the monitoring of individual parliamentarians and parliamentary groups by independent information intermediaries, including ‘Parliamentary Monitoring Organizations’ (Mandelbaum 2011). The objects of parliamentary monitoring include voting behaviour and other parliamentary activities, expenses and non-parliamentary incomes, unethical conduct and potential conflicts of interest. As a matter of course, information and communication technologies (ICTs) greatly facilitate parliamentary monitoring, because of their capabilities to store, organize and aggregate information from various sources, and to create platforms for interaction between citizens and politicians. Parliamentary openness and parliamentary monitoring can been related to several democratic aims. The basic expectation is that they further the public knowledge about the functioning of parliaments and their individual members. This could serve other democratic aims, including holding parliamentarians accountable, empowering civil society and encouraging citizen participation. We encompass those aims under the heading of ‘democratic value’ (Hilbert, 2009; Moss and Coleman 2014), which we define as the added value of parliamentary monitoring for democratic practices within a configuration of interacting (representative and more direct) forms of democracy. This paper aims at a critical exploration of the promises, barriers and dilemmas of parliamentary monitoring. We investigate how PMOs select and present information on Parliamentary Monitoring Websites (PMWs), which design choices are thereby made and how these choices affect the democratic value of PMWs. The central question is: What is the democratic value of Parliamentary Monitoring Websites? Our research is structured around three sub questions: (1) How can the democratic value of parliamentary monitoring be conceptualized? (2) Which conditions regarding usefulness have to be fulfilled for the realization of this democratic potential? (3) How are usefulness and democratic value realized on PMWs? The first two questions are dealt with in the theoretical framework. We start by discussing key conditions with regard to the usefulness of parliamentary information for citizens. Usefulness is a necessary condition for the realization of the democratic value of parliamentary data. 1 Declaration on Parliamentary Openness (2012). Opening Parliament.org 2 Democratic value is conceptualized within the framework of models of democracy. Representative democracy is the primary domain within which this democratic potential is discussed. Pluralist democracy, deliberative democracy and direct democracy are taken into consideration as well. The notion of ‘monitorial citizenship’ will be used as a lens to investigate how mechanisms from these models of democracy interact with parliamentary monitoring. For instance, within representative democracy the usage of information provided on PMWs assumes vigilant ‘monitorial voters’. How are monitorial voters facilitated by PMWs? The democratic value of PMWs in representative democracy can also be assessed in terms of the quality and integrity of parliamentary work. This dimension of democratic value will be discussed within the framework of accountability, but not investigated in further detail. The research is based on case studies of five PMWs in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. These countries represent a variety of political systems which serves our exploratory aims. In section 2, we present our theoretical framework and research design. In section 3, we provide a description of the selected websites. We present a comparative analysis of the websites in section 4, followed by an assessment of their democratic value in section 5. In section 6, we formulate our conclusions. 2. Theoretical framework and research design Figure 1: conceptual model usage by citizens general conditions for democratic value of parliamentary data: usefulness of parliamentary data representative, pluralist, deliberative, direct democracy information usage by information and preference intermediaries intermediaries Figure 1 presents our conceptual model. For parliamentary data to actually be used by citizens, certain conditions with regard to the usefulness of the data have to be fulfilled. Information 3 intermediaries (PMOs as well as journalists) have a crucial role in this. With regard to democratic value, the role of intermediaries has to be highlighted as well, not only in processing and presenting the data as such, but also in interpreting the data in relation to political preferences. The democratic value of parliamentary monitoring depends not only on the work of journalists but also advocacy groups and political parties (‘preference intermediaries’; Edwards, 2006a). 2.1 Usefulness The drive to increase openness and transparency by means of information access and dissemination entails various problems and tensions. Usefulness is one of the primary principles that should guide decisions about how parliamentary information has to be made available (Dawes, 2010). The principle involves that the disseminated information is relevant to its intended users and is made available in such a way that it can be used in an easy manner. Janssen et al (2012) discuss a number of ‘myths’ concerning ‘open data’ and ‘open government’. ‘Myths’ are ‘seductive tales’, which tend to idealize a specific endeavour by looking at the advantages without sufficient attention to possible drawbacks (Bekkers and Homburg, 2007). Meijer (2009) argues that computer-mediated transparency has some characteristics that can actually threaten trust. Computer-mediated transparency tends to be decontextualized, highly selective and biased toward quantitative information and non- interactive. Grimmelikhuijsen (2012) established that the direct effect of transparency on trust is very limited. On the basis of their discussion of myths, Janssen et al. (2012: 264-266) formulated some recommendations. An important one is to get insight into the users’ perspective and information needs. Dawes (2002) specified a number of ‘usefulness proposals’. The following three design principles for PMWs are partly based upon their work. 1. Appropriate consideration should be given to the objects of monitoring, the information about these objects and the kind of data. At least three problems can be noted. Firstly, information provision is always selective. The choices made with regard to the parliamentary activities to be monitored can affect the voters’ assessment of their representatives. Second, the publicizing of some information and data can result in a misleading or biased picture of the situation. For instance, without contextual information about the political position of the party (in the opposition or in the government), and compromises made in case of coalition governments, simple performance ratings of political groups according to their enactment of election promises can be misleading. Third, publication of certain data can lead to misuse and other undesirable side effects. For instance, rankings of parliamentarians according to their interventions in debates can result in strategic behaviour. 4 2. The publicizing of parliamentary data needs to be accompanied by an infrastructure which is able to handle the data in an easy-to-use way. An example is a concise grouping of data in a ‘profile’ of each representative. Such an infrastructure should lower the barriers for
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Licensing Open Government Data Jyh-An Lee
    Hastings Business Law Journal Volume 13 Article 2 Number 2 Winter 2017 Winter 2017 Licensing Open Government Data Jyh-An Lee Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/ hastings_business_law_journal Part of the Business Organizations Law Commons Recommended Citation Jyh-An Lee, Licensing Open Government Data, 13 Hastings Bus. L.J. 207 (2017). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_business_law_journal/vol13/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Business Law Journal by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 2 - LEE MACROED.DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 5/5/2017 11:09 AM Licensing Open Government Data Jyh-An Lee* Governments around the world create and collect an enormous amount of data that covers important environmental, educational, geographical, meteorological, scientific, demographic, transport, tourism, health insurance, crime, occupational safety, product safety, and many other types of information.1 This data is generated as part of a government’s daily functions.2 Given government data’s exceptional social and economic value, former U.S. President Barack Obama described it as a “national asset.”3 For various policy reasons, open government data (“OGD”) has become a popular governmental practice and international * Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law in the Chinese University
    [Show full text]
  • Creating Value Through Open Data
    Creating Value through Open Data Creating Value through Open Data: Study on the Impact of Re-use of Public Data Resources Digital Agenda for Europe This study has been prepared by Capgemini Consulting as part of the European Data Portal. The European Data Portal is developed by the European Commission with the support of a consortium led by Capgemini Consulting, including INTRASOFT International, Fraunhofer Fokus, con.terra, Sogeti, the Open Data Institute, Time.Lex and the University of Southampton. For more information about this paper, please contact: European Commission Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology Unit G.3 Value Data Chain Daniele Rizzi – Policy Officer Email: [email protected] Project Team Dinand Tinholt – Vice President, EU Lead, Capgemini Consulting Executive lead European Data Portal Email: [email protected] Wendy Carrara – Director, Principal Consultant, Capgemini Consulting Project Manager European Data Portal Email: [email protected] Written and reviewed by Wendy Carrara, Wae San Chan, Sander Fischer, Eva van Steenbergen (Capgemini Consulting). Internal identification Contract number: 30-CE-0677290/00-65 SMART number: 2014-1072 DISCLAIMER By the European Commission, Directorate-General of Communications Networks, Content & Technology. The information and views set out in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the Commission. The Commission does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this study. Neither the Commission nor any person acting on the Commission’s behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein. ISBN 978-92-79-52791-3 DOI 10.2759/328101 © European Union, 2015.
    [Show full text]
  • Mission BOTHOREL
    Conditions of publication and distribution This document is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence (CC BY 3.0), which requires that users of the work attribute the creator. Summary Our country needs more open data, of all kinds. This includes open government data, and access to and sharing of sensitive information. France has been a pioneer of open data and open source policy in Europe since 2013, but our lead is precarious. Our policy is currently caught up in the wrong debate – “for or against open data” – and the outcome is a shift in policy objectives, whereas we should be changing the way we do things. Our inaction has resulted in lost opportunities for our society and our economy, while the potential for knowledge development and innovation is huge. This report sets out some ambitious reforms, in particular if we want to take part in the transformations under way in Europe, as well as many realistic measures that do not require a “new dawn” and can be achieved within a year and have a significant impact on the future. If the government does not promote this policy, France will miss out on a major opportunity to build trust in government, improve the efficacy of public policy, and develop knowledge and innovation across the economy. An urgent need for such action has now emerged from the health and economic crisis and the findings of the “Great National Debate” in France. The Public Interest Entrepreneurs programme in France, which involves hiring talented individuals in government departments to solve targeted problems, has shown that even a modest level of commitment can deliver substantial results when open data and open source technology are used.
    [Show full text]
  • The Genetic History of France
    bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/712497; this version posted July 24, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. 1 The Genetic History of France 2 Aude Saint Pierre1*, Joanna Giemza2*, Matilde Karakachoff2, Isabel Alves2, Philippe 3 Amouyel3+, Jean-François Dartigues4+, Christophe Tzourio4+, Martial Monteil5, Pilar Galan6, 4 Serge Hercberg6, Richard Redon2, Emmanuelle Génin1*, Christian Dina2* 5 1Univ Brest, Inserm, EFS, CHU Brest, UMR 1078, GGB, F-29200 Brest, France 6 2l'institut du thorax, INSERM, CNRS, Univ Nantes, CHU Nantes, Nantes, France 7 3Univ. Lille, Inserm, CHU Lille University Hospital, Institut Pasteur de Lille, LabEx DISTALZ- 8 UMR1167 - RID-AGE - Risk factors and molecular determinants of aging-related, F-59000 9 Lille, France 10 4Univ. Bordeaux, Inserm, Bordeaux Population Health Research Center, UMR 1219, CHU 11 Bordeaux, F-33000 Bordeaux, France 12 5Université de Nantes, UMR 6566 CReAAH, LARA, Nantes, France 13 6Université Paris 13, Equipe de Recherche en Epidémiologie Nutritionnelle, Centre de 14 Recherche en Epidémiologie et Statistiques, Inserm (U1153), Inra (U1125), Cnam, COMUE 15 Sorbonne Paris Cité, F-93017, Bobigny, France 16 * These authors contributed equally to this work 17 + On behalf of the 3C study 18 Running Title: The Genetic History of France 19 Key words: Population stratification, Genetic ancestry, Admixture, Demographic history, Gene 20 flow barriers, Association Study 21 Corresponding authors: Aude Saint Pierre, [email protected] 22 Christian Dina, [email protected] 23 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/712497; this version posted July 24, 2019.
    [Show full text]
  • How Occupied France Financed Its Own Exploitation in World War II
    How Occupied France Financed its own Exploitation in World War II Filippo Occhino Rutgers University [email protected] Kim Oosterlinck Solvay Business School Université Libre de Bruxelles [email protected] Eugene N. White Rutgers University and NBER [email protected] Abstract Most studies of war finance have focused on how belligerent powers funded hostilities with their own resources. The collapse of the Third Republic in 1940 left Berlin in control of a nearly equally powerful industrial economy. This paper analyzes the policies employed by the German occupation and the collaborating government in Vichy to supply resources to the Nazi war machine. Vichy finance ministers eschewed inflation and promoted bond finance by imposing price and wages control and financial repression. They engineered a huge transfer of resources but at a very high cost. We assess the results of this policy with a neoclassical growth model and discuss the efficiency and sustainability of Nazi exploitation. October 2005 Preliminary—Please Do Not Quote or Cite The study of war finance is usually approached by examining how the available domestic resources were used by belligerents. Although incurring huge expenses, warring governments are usually assumed to attempt some optimization of revenue generation on behalf of their population. However, war finance in France during World War II was quite different. The collapse of the Third Republic left Berlin in control of a nearly equally powerful industrial economy. To finance its continuing war on other fronts, the German government sought and secured a massive and, perhaps, unparalleled extraction of resources from France. But, unlike belligerent powers that raise funds from their own population; the Nazis were known to have little interest in the long-term welfare of the countries they occupied.
    [Show full text]
  • Factsheet: Access to Base Registries in France
    Factsheet: Access to Base Registries in France Published 10/09/2018 Disclaimer: The information provided herein is the result of the ABR project within ISA² programme. ISA² has made the utmost effort to research and keep the correct and most updated information on JoinUp. However, this factsheet has not been validated by relevant MS authorities, thus, ISA² does not accept any responsibility for the content, accuracy, completeness, legality or function of this factsheet. Please contact ISA² for further information: [email protected] Table of Contents France towards Interoperability ..................................................................................................................... 3 Legal Interoperability ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Organisational Interoperability ..................................................................................................................... 10 Semantic Interoperability ............................................................................................................................. 13 Technical Interoperability ............................................................................................................................. 16 Cross-border Interoperability ....................................................................................................................... 18 E-Government Public Services making use of Base Registries data .........................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Vichy France: "Our" Jews and the Rest
    -------------------------.- Vichy France: "Our" Jews and the Rest SAUL FRIEDLANDER Marchandeau Law ofApril 21, 1939, which forbade From The Years ofExtermination: Nazi Germany incitement on racial or religious grounds: The and the Jews, 1939-1945 floodgates of antisemitic propaganda reopened. A month after signing the armistice [on June 22, On August 16, a National Association of Physi­ 1940], seven days after the demise of the Third cians was established, whose members had to Republic, Marshal [Philippe] Petain's new regime, be born of French fathers. On September 10, the on its own initiative, introduced its first anti­ same limitation was applied to the legal profes­ Jewish measure. One hundred fifty years after the sion.4 And, on October 3, 1940, Vichy, again on emancipation of the Jews of France, the rollback its own initiative, issued its Statut des juifs (Jew­ had started. Of the approximately 330,000 Jews ish Statute.) in prewar France almost half were either foreign­ In the opening paragraph of the statute, a Jew ers or born of foreign parents. And among the was defined as any person descending from at least foreigners, 55,000 had arrived between 1933 and three grandparents of the "Jewish race" or of two 1939 (40JOOO since 1935).1 ... grandparents of the "Jewish race" if the spouse Strident collaborationism was rarely heard in too was Jewish (the German definition referred Vichy during the summer of1940, but traditional to the grandparents' religionj the French, to their native antisemitism was rife from the very first race). The next paragraphs listed all the public " " .1"1 days.
    [Show full text]
  • Transport Data Case Studies: UK 16
    Contents About 2 Executive summary 3 Introduction 5 Transport Data Case Studies: France Jean Gabriel Audebert-Lasrochas from Trainline presenting the challenges of working with open transport data in France and the UK 6 Building a digital common and social network with national transport data Ishan Bhojwani – Etalab 7 Working across borders in France and Spain – and what this could mean for the UK and France Julien de Labaca – Transfermuga 8 Five reasons DX matters for open transport Eugena Ossi - Five by Five 9 Mobility-related projects at OpenDataSoft Fanny Goldschmidt - OpenDataSoft 10 Open Transport as a platform for open innovation ecosystem Bertrand Billoud – Kisio Digital 11 The history of open data in France and the UK: differences and similarities Samuel Goëta – Datactivist 12 Catalogue Zakaria Bouziane – Transdev 15 Transport data case studies: UK 16 Tom Forth from ODI Leeds, Vincent Lara from Etalab, and Christopher Barnes from Highways England during the UK France Transport Data Workshop’s afternoon Unconference. 16 Examples of collaboration on transport data: Lyon and Birmingham Andrew Radford – Birmingham City Council 17 Public transport open data in the UK, and what ODI Leeds has done with it Tom Forth - ODI Leeds 18 Engaging with your community of open data users Rikesh Shah - Transport for London 19 The role of ‘open’ in the development of new mobility services Giles Bailey – TravelSpirit 20 Challenges of working with travel data in the UK and France Jean-Gabriel Audebert-Lasrochas, Trainline 21 Ten ideas for cross-country transport data collaboration 22 Fanny Goldschmidt from Opendatasoft, Andrew Radford from Birmingham Council and Rick Bruce from ITO World prioritising ideas for cross-country collaboration between France and the UK 22 Appendix 27 Workshop Participants 27 Open Data Institute 2018 | Case study Transport data in the UK and France 1 About This report has been researched and produced by the Open Data Institute, and published on 5 July 2018.
    [Show full text]
  • Building the Case for Open Data to Fight Corruption
    CONNECTING THE DOTS: Building the Case for Open Data to Fight Corruption Transparency International is a global movement with one vision: a world in which government, business, civil society and the daily lives of people are free of corruption. With more than 100 chapters worldwide and an international secretariat in Berlin, we are leading the fight against corruption to turn this vision into reality. www.transparency.org Authors: Jon Vrushi and Robin Hodess Design: Daniela Cristofori © Cover photo: Shutterstock Ekaphon Maneechot Every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of the information contained in this report. All information was believed to be correct as of November 2016. Nevertheless, Transparency International cannot accept responsibility for the consequences of its use for other purposes or in other contexts. This research was conducted in cooperation with the World Wide Web Foundation. Established by the inventor of the web, the World Wide Web Foundation works for digital equality for all. For more, please visit webfoundation.org. ISBN: 978-3-96076-040-5 Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0 © Transparency International 2017. Some rights reserved. CONTENTS Preface 4 Exeutive Summary 5 Building the Case: Linking Up Open Data and Anti-Corruption 7 G20 Principles: Open data and anti-corruption in five G20 countries 10 Assessing Anti-Corruption Datasets 12 Map of Key Findings across the Five Countries 14 Case study: Open Data for Anti-corruption 16 Key recommendations 18 PREFACE The purpose of this overview report is to make the In 2015 the G20 Anti-Corruption Open case for using open data to strengthen anti-corruption Data Principles1 (hereafter G20 Principles) efforts.
    [Show full text]
  • Report of Activities 2011 / Project 2012
    REPORT OF ACTIVITIES 2011 / PROJECT 2012 CONTENTS General Introduction ..................................................................................................... 3 I – Summary of activities 2011 and put into perspective the project Digital Studies ... 5 II – Engineering and web philosophy and metadata....................................................... 7 1 – Meetings of the Web Data ............................................................................................... 7 2 – Conference PhiloWeb ..................................................................................................... 8 3 – Séminaire Muséologie 2.0 « Web sémantique/Web social » ; Edition 2011 – 2012 ........... 8 4 – European Marie Curie Scholarship (FP7 Project PhiloWeb)............................................. 11 5 – Art History ................................................................................................................... 11 III – Collaborative Technologies, technology trust....................................................... 14 1 – Economy and technologies of trust................................................................................ 14 2 – Todai Forum sur le thème « Catastrophe et média » ...................................................... 16 3 – Publication of the book on "Social Networks" ................................................................ 17 4 – Culture and education as the foundation of the new industrial world .............................. 17 5 – The project FUI THD (very high
    [Show full text]
  • UNCHARTERED WATERS the State of Open Data in Europe
    UNCHARTERED WATERS THE STATE OF OPEN DATA IN EUROPE Public Sector Study Series 01/2011 UNCHARTERED WATERS The State of Open Data in Europe Alexander Schellong Ekaterina Stepanets Opening up government data to the public has been part of the European policy agenda since the introduction of the PSI directive in 2003. European Member States continue to lean towards a cautious approach of making their data available to citizens. This is partly caused by conflicting legal frameworks, cultural norms and the idea to recover the costs of data production. At the same time and inspired by activities in the U.S. and UK, the open data movement has emerged in many countries around the globe. They have a simple demand: Government agencies should put as much of their data online as possible in a machine-readable format so that everyone can re-use it since they were paid for by taxes. This study analyses the current state of the open data policy ecosystem and open government data offerings in nine European Member States. Since none of the countries studied currently offers a national open data portal, this study compares the statistics offices’ online data offerings. The analysis shows that they fulfill a number of open data principles but that there is still a lot of room for improvement. This study under- lines that the development of data catalogues and portals should not be seen as means to an end. Introduction Government data seem to resemble the open seas in ancient times. They remain a vast unexplored space. Only a few have a basic grasp of them.
    [Show full text]
  • OGP Steering Committee Meeting Minutes April 22-23, 2015
    OGP Steering Committee Meeting Minutes April 22-23, 2015 Wednesday, April 22 – Working-Level Business Meeting Guillermo Ruiz de Teresa, on behalf of the Government of Mexico, and Suneeta Kaimal, civil society co- chair, welcomed the Steering Committee members to the meeting. Mr. Ruiz de Teresa then reviewed the agenda and invited all participants to introduce themselves. He then asked the Support Unit (SU) and Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) to provide an update of accomplishments since the last SC meeting in October 2014. The updates are attached here as Annex I. At the end of the session, Linda Frey, the Executive Director of the SU, announced her intention to step down from her position in September. Suneeta Kaimal noted that the process for recruiting a new Executive Director would be discussed later in the day, and on behalf of the SC, thanked Ms. Frey for her tremendous contribution to the growth and impact of OGP. Peer Learning and Support (PLS) Working Groups Martin Tisne, chair of the PLS subcommittee, opened the session by summarizing the discussion at the subcommittee meeting on April 21: ● PLS discussed the recommendations emerging from a recent external review of OGP’s thematic Working Groups, noting that the review was quite helpful in identifying possible improvements to the current model. A key objective is to balance the Working Groups’ role in providing expert advice with the goal of promoting peer exchange. ● The subcommittee also discussed how to strengthen demand for the services provided by the Working Groups. One idea is for the Working Groups to provide targeted, in-depth support to a smaller number of countries before scaling up work.
    [Show full text]